Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
SF is a lot of different things...but one part of it is simply an opportunity for someone to travel to a strange land and interact with the strange autochthones and observe their curious customs. Or vice versa.
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Uh-huh.
The Vice-versa has given us some pretty good stories in decades past.
Hal Clement's ICE WORLD comes to mind.
Sometimes *we* are the strange autochthones hosting the intrepid explorers.
SF is at its best when it can be different things to different people at the same time; presenting both sides of a conflict so that to some people the story appears optimistic (Yay! the good guys won!) while to others pessimistic (Do those people realize the disaster they've just created for themselves?).
In LENSMEN you root for the Galactic Patrol and the Arisian camp as they hurl light-speed planets at the fortified bases of the Eddorian proxies or blow up their suns. Never mind the poor enslaved BEMS who had no say in electing their tyrannical leaders or even learned to sing Kumbaya.
Optimistic? Pesimistic? The good guys win... through genocide.
Uplifting for the Galactic Patrol kicking Boskone rears but definitely a downer for the Boskonians. But it's all in good fun.
(And the Galactic Patrol definitely stood their ground on that one.
)
SF: Ideas explored for fun and insight.
We just need more explorers.